Enfamil AR Question

Hi, long time no talk!  I've been so freakin' busy!  I haven't even had time to lurk...how pathetic is THAT?!   But I have a question I'm hoping you seasoned mommies can answer.  Kellen has been on the Zantac for almost a month now and though he throws up less, I was also adding a little rice cereal to his bottles,  it was causing the (fast flow) nipples to get clogged and it would take me forever to realize that he wasn't getting anything.....sooooooo....I decided to purchase a can of the Enfamil AR.  It says that is "thickens in the stomach" - right.  This stuff is as thick as Pepto Bismol as soon as you add water!  LOL! My questions are: 1.  Why the hell is it so foamy??  Does that not cause additional gas?   2.  Because it's so thick, how does he eat even more at a feeding?? 3.  The instructions say when preparing it to "shake well and wait 5 minutes" - WHY??  It's not like the bubbles lessen or anything.  If I waited 5 minutes at 3am, I'd have one highly pissed off baby and a woken family.  4.  It's only been since Friday afternoon that we started it but he's still spitting up.  Does it take a few days or weeks??  It's a thicker barf, but barf none the less. Thank you...I hope SOMEONE has some answers! Sandy

My oldest son was on that formula.  The foaminess doesn't actually cause more gas, at least it didn't with my son.  It says to wait because it is suppose to thicken up more but I never waited, like you I would have had an unhappy household.  It took about 2 weeks on that formula before I noticed a difference in his spitting up.  He still spit up like any normal baby but it was way less on that formula.  Hope this helps and congrats on your chunky monkey.  He is adorable.

The AR did NOTHING for Josh's spit up- we were on it for a week and 1/2 but I did learn a trick- Mylacon in any powder formula bottle will automatically reduce the foam immediately. Put the smallest dose right into the bottle right after shaking. Josh is STILL spitting up too. He's 5 mos old now and has been on 7 formulas. My pediatrician says I have two options... prescription formula or letting my "happy spitter" spit up. He says his sons (he has 5) spit up with every bottle and if they don't fuss after the bottle, he would be OK with that rather than medicate them. His poor wife went through 3 or 4 shirts a day. Lucky for her, her girls never spit up (they have 3.. BIG family!) It should get much better when you start spoon feeding cereal and much, much better when he's sitting up on his own. Sorry I couldn't help more- try the mylacon -Janine nooje

Hi Sandy,

I used enfamil AR with my second son for about 8 months. I too also tried the zantac but didn't see much improvement. I found that the Enfamil AR helped reduce the amount the spit up, but didn't completely take it away...which was better than nothing for me. Forget trying to add rice to the bottle...I found that no matter which type of nipple I used (even the ones that were made for thicker formula) would just get clogged getting myself and my son very upset. Trying making a few bottles ahead of time and putting them in the fridge. When you need them stick them in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds (test the amount of time before the 3am feeding). That way the formula has time to completely dissolve. It is going to be a bit foamy...I think it has something to do with the rice thats in it. It should not give him any gas. If for some reason it does you can always give him a dose of milicon before he eats. I didn't find a difference in the amount of formula he was eating with this new formula. If he took 6 ounces before he also took 6 ounces after the new change in formula. You should notice a difference fairly soon with the spitting up. If he does spit up it will have a chunky apperance to it. Which is good...helps with the projectile :). Again, it won't stop the spitting up, just help with it.

I hope this helps!

Kerry

THe solution to clogged nipples is to cut larger holes (we had 'x's) in them.

We tried Kaitlin on *all* of the formulas.. she still spit-up.  We settled with Nutramigen due to severe reflux (not a happy spitter.. was on prilosec) and quite a load of rice in her formula to make it stay down.  Even with that, she still spit-up after every bottle.. it just wasnt 1.5 oz of the 2 oz bottle.

We always made our formula up one day in advance and let it sit in the fridge.. this really helped reduce the foam in the formula.  It's good made-up for 24 hours, as long as it is refridgerated.

Good luck. Andrea